If the Constitution provides at best a cumbersome framework for
making public policy and objectively applied human rationality offers little
promise for an objective, scientific solution to the dilemma, what's left?
Politics.

Will politics, of all things, do? Cynicism
regarding the performance of the American political system appears at a
historical peak. Declinging election turnout reveals how little confidence and
respect the American people have in politics-as-usual. Go to the current events
section of any bookstore and examine the dazzling array of books which tell the
story of what has gone wrong with the American political system. The culprit is
seen, more than any other, as money corrupting politics. In this context, the
meaning of the Golden Rule is Whoever has the gold makes the rules.

Who puts the politics in public policy?

Consider the apt title of E. J. Dionne's best-selling book,
published in 1990, Why Americans Hate Politics. He argues that the
contemporary debate between conservatism and liberalism has produced a false
choice between doctrines which fail. He claims that liberals, obsessed with
cultural and not social concerns, insult and embitter the average American,
ignoring their real needs. Conservatives, he writes, pander to the economic
insecurities and to the unfulfilled aspirations of the majority of Americans,
but contradict their rhetoric with policies which work mainly for the rich.
Dionne notes that both the cultural reforms advocated by liberals and the
economic programs promulgated by conservatives represent the cravings or the
material interests of the same strata in American society, the upper-middle
class and the wealthy. He claims that the phony ideological dispute polarizes
the American public and that such polarization is necessary for both parties in
their quest for power. Meanwhile, concrete solutions to real problems and
grievances remain stymied.

Is this why Americans hate politics:? The political
system does not recognize their problems, heed their interests, and produce
workable policy solutions? As we recounted in the Introduction, Americans
surely have lost faith in political leadership and core institutions. Is this
at least partly due to the failure of public policy to address their needs? If
politics has fails to produce viable public policy, what then?

To tackle the question, we must turn to the political dynamics
whirling around public policy. We will examine particular models which capture
part of the picture and should be part of our kit of tools for understanding
public policy: incrementalism, policy
overhaul and iron
triangles. The first and last help explain the inertia which maintains
the status quo. Overhaul examines the rare historical event, a break in the
pattern of policy-making toward new approaches.